“American Idiot,” the title track off the band’s 2004 punk rock opera, is the latest track to hit the 1 billion streams mark. It’s the second Green Day song to achieve that feat, following “Basket Case.”
Green Day is playing both “American Idiot” and “Basket Case” on their ongoing U.S. stadium tour, during which they’re performing the albums American Idiot and Dookie in full to celebrate their respective 20th and 30th anniversaries.
Meanwhile, a 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of American Idiot will be released Oct. 25.
Over the years, artists from Bruno Mars to Bob Dylan to Alicia Keys to Prince have either instituted cell phone bans at their shows or complained about fans filming them as they perform. But Sting is one veteran act who’s just fine with you whipping out your phone when he starts singing “Every Breath You Take.”
Speaking to USA Today, Sting says he knew that song — from The Police‘s smash album Synchronicity — “was a #1 hit” when he wrote it. However, “Its life beyond that, up to decades later, I could not have anticipated it.” When asked if he still likes singing “Every Breath You Take,” he enthuses, “Of course I do. Everyone gets their cameras out.”
Asked how he feels about that, Sting says, “I look at it as people like what they’re hearing. It’s visual applause. It looks pretty in the stadium, so I’m not going to object … it’s an affirmation that the song you’re doing, they love.“
Sting launches a theater tour with his new power trio on Sept. 17, but he’s also doing several stadium shows this fall with Billy Joel. Sting, who has known Billy since 1980, recalls, “I remember spending an evening with him at a piano and he started to play Beethoven, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis – he had it all at his fingertips.”
“And I thought, ‘You really are a true musician, you really are that guy, you really are the piano man.’ I have infinite respect for him.”
But that respect doesn’t extend to loaning out his wardrobe, apparently. Sting says he and Billy share a backstage when they perform together and “I’m always in there borrowing something.”
“He wanted to wear one of my suits,” Sting adds. “But I said no.”
Dave Mason will release his memoir, Only You Know and I Know, on Tuesday, and of course a portion of the book is devoted to his time in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band Traffic, alongside Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood.
Mason had a rather disjointed tenure with Traffic, leaving after their 1967 debut album, Mr. Fantasy, only to rejoin them in 1968 and then get fired after a few months. But despite all the ups and downs, Mason tells ABC Audio he can still take something positive from his time with the group.
“I don’t forget, but at the same time, I’m not going to carry lingering resentment and hate and stuff. It’s not worth it,” he shares. “What transcends all those personal differences and bulls*** and whatever is the music.”
Mason says his firing was particularly hard because he enjoys the collaboration that comes with being in a band, but in the end, some musical personalities just don’t work well together.
“You know, differences combine to form beauty and so the differences are what made things great,” he says, “but the differences unfortunately drove it apart.”
Mason left Traffic for good after a brief return in 1971. Other than Mason, Winwood is the only surviving original member of the band. While Mason says he’d be open to a reunion, it’s not going to happen because of Winwood.
“It’s unfortunate that Steve Winwood can’t get together with me and go out and make one sort of last performance of Traffic,” he says, adding that despite their differences he’s more than willing to do it.
“I’m just open to doing it,” he says. “You know, we don’t even have to talk, you just have to get onstage for an hour and a half.”
Bruce Springsteen’s wife and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa has been mostly absent from The Boss’ current tour, and we now know why.
People reports that in the new Springsteen documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival Sunday, the 71-year-old Scialfa reveals that in 2018 she was diagnosed multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which has made it hard for her to perform.
“I’ve been performing with this band for 40 years. With those first performances, it felt so good to be back onstage,” Patti says of the band’s tour, adding, “Touring has become a challenge for me. In 2018, well, Bruce and I were doing a play on Broadway. I was diagnosed with early stage multiple myeloma.”
Because she needs to protect her immune system, she’s taken a step back from the road. She says, “I just have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go,” adding, “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs onstage, and that’s been a treat. That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m OK with that.”
Springsteen and The E Street Band kicked off their tour in February 2023, but the second U.S. leg had to be postponed after Bruce was diagnosed with peptic ulcer disease. He returned to the road in March 2024, with the final two U.S. shows scheduled for Friday in Baltimore, and Saturday at Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Sea.Hear.Now Festival.
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is set to debut Oct. 25 on Hulu.
Elton John and husband/co-director David Furnish; Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images
“I’m having the best time of my life – except this f****** eye. I wish I could see you,” Elton John told the audience at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 6 after his new documentary Never Too Late premiered, Variety reports.
The music legend had revealed on Instagram a few days earlier that he’s recovering from a “severe eye infection” that has left him with “only limited vision” in one eye.
Still, he was able to attend the festival with his husband, David Furnish, who co-directed the doc, but instead of walking the red carpet, he rode down it on a purple golf cart.
During a quick Q&A, Elton told the audience that he loves the fact that, in addition to his career, the film documents his relationship with Furnish and their two sons, Zachary and Elijah.
According to Variety, Elton held back tears as he said, “I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved. I hope to keep making music, but I want to be home and treasure them. Having a #1 album is really nice for five minutes, but this is a lifetime.”
“On my tombstone, I don’t want it to say he sold a million records,” he added. “I want it to say he was a great dad and great husband.”
Never Too Late, which premieres on Disney+ on December 13, is bookended by Elton’s historic concerts at LA’s Dodger Stadium in 1975, and his 2022 shows at the same venue. It covers Elton’s childhood, his success, his drug addiction, his difficult romantic relationships, and his friendship with John Lennon among other topics.
According to Variety, Furnish said, “It’s a beautiful narrative arc. You can have all the success in the world, but it means nothing until you have love.”
A new documentary about Jimi Hendrix is in the works, to be directed by The Greatest Night inPop director Bao Nguyen, Variety reports.
The doc, Jimi, will be the first full-length film about the legendary performer, who passed away in 1970. It will focus on Hendrix’s time in London in the early ’60s through his U.S. breakthrough at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
“Jimi’s time in London was some of the most pivotal in his life journey and his musical career,” Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister and the president and CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, says. “Just as Bao Nguyen has achieved in his films highlighting the lives of other iconic figures who influenced pop culture, this presentation of Jimi’s London experience will be inspiring and informative — a story told the way it should be.”
“Telling the story of Jimi Hendrix during his pivotal years in London is both a profound honor and a unique responsibility,” Nguyen adds. “I approach this project with deep respect for his legacy and the cultural significance he holds as an American original.”
Van Morrison and former Northern Ireland Minister of Health Robin Swann have come to a settlement in the dueling lawsuits they had against each other, according to the BBC.
Both suits stemmed from the COVID-19 lockdowns. Swann sued Morrison for slander after comments the musician made at a June 2021 show in Belfast, where he called Swann “very dangerous.” The comments were in response to show cancellations due to pandemic lockdowns.
Morrison filed his own suit against Swan and the Department of Health over a September 2020 op-ed in Rolling Stone magazine that called out Morrison’s anti-lockdown songs, arguing their messages could be “actually dangerous.”
The High Court in Belfast announced Friday that both lawsuits had been settled, although terms of the settlement were not released. Both cases were due to go to trial at the end of September.
While neither Morrison nor Swann attended the hearing, a statement was read on behalf of both parties. Morrison acknowledged that although he didn’t agree with Swann, he “acted at all times honestly and in good faith and on the advice of responsible officials.”
Swann, who also didn’t agree with Morrison’s views, acknowledged the singer’s views “were sincere and expressed in the context of Sir Van being prevented by government regulations from performing in a role for which he is justly famous.”
The Department of Health also acknowledged that a U.S. music magazine was not necessarily the most appropriate place to express their views about Morrison’s song lyrics.
Ringo Starr is getting ready to kick off another tour with his All Starr Band, and he just gave fans a peek behind the scenes at rehearsals for the trek.
In a new video, Ringo shared clips of him and his band at work rehearsing the song “Matchbox.” He also revealed that there’s something very special about the drum kit he’ll be playing on the tour, noting it’s the same model he played when The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“I had the small kit because I wanted to be seen,” he explained. “But then I had the great idea and said why don’t you give me a rostrum, and they built the rostrum and I’m up there having a great time.”
For this leg of the All Starr Band tour, Ringo will be joined by Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men At Work’s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson.
The tour kicks off Saturday in San Diego and wraps Sept. 25 in New York City. A complete list of dates can be found at ringostarr.com.
Bob Dylan is sharing another live track set to appear on his upcoming box set, The 1974 Live Recordings, which ismade up of live recordings Dylan made with The Band.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just released a performance of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” a previously unheard live performance recorded Jan. 30, 1974, at New York’s Madison Square Garden. It follows the previously released recording of “Forever Young,” from a Seattle show on Feb. 9, 1974.
Both performances are part of the 431 live tracks featured on the box set, which is made up of 27 CDs. Among those live recordings are 417 that have never been released before. The set also includes 133 newly mixed recordings, plus all the surviving soundboard recordings.
The 1974 Live Recordings, dropping Sept. 20, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dylan’s historic tour with The Band, which was Dylan’s return to touring after an eight-year break. The tour, which kicked off Jan. 4, 1974, in Chicago, saw the two acts playing arenas for the first time.
